Police Use Tear Gas and Water Cannons on Student Protesters in Paris

There is a particular sorrow that settles over a city when the forces of order are turned against the young—when the students who have taken to the streets to demand better conditions for their education are met not with dialogue but with tear gas and water cannons, when the barricades they build are answered with force, and when the images that emerge show teenagers running from clouds of chemical irritants. In Paris this week, that sorrow has returned. Police have deployed tear gas and water cannons against student protesters, the latest escalation in a movement that has swept across France and that shows no sign of abating.

The protests began last week in the Paris suburbs over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and crumbling school buildings. They spread rapidly, drawing in parents, university students, and trade unions. By this week, hundreds of schools across the country had been blockaded or closed, and the government had deployed thousands of police officers to contain the unrest. In Paris, clashes erupted near the Gare du Nord and in other parts of the city, where students built barricades from bins and debris. Police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Videos shared on social media showed students fleeing, some with their eyes streaming, others being dragged away by officers.

The government has framed its response as a matter of public order. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the protests had been infiltrated by "radical elements" and that the police were acting to prevent violence and destruction. He accused the hard-left party La France Insoumise of orchestrating the violence—a claim the party denies. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called for calm and has promised to address the students' grievances, but the measures announced so far—replacing absent teachers, reviewing the length of the school day, and assessing repairs—have been dismissed by the students as insufficient.

The human cost of the crackdown has been significant. More than 6,000 people have been arrested since the protests began, 85 percent of them minors. At least 215 teenagers and 715 police officers have been injured. Amnesty International has called for an end to the "disproportionate police response," and the IGPN, France's police inspectorate, has opened ten internal investigations into allegations of brutality. One 14-year-old, Eden, was hit in the face by a tear-gas grenade; his jaw was fractured and his teeth broken. A 15-year-old in Lens lost his hand after a "sting-ball" grenade exploded.

The protests are expected to continue, with the CGT union calling for further action. The schools remain closed, the streets remain tense, and the government remains caught between the demands of the students and its own commitment to maintaining order. The tear gas will dissipate. The water cannons will be turned off. But the anger that brought the students into the streets—the anger over classrooms that are falling apart, over teachers who are not replaced, over a system that seems to have stopped listening—will remain. And the images of young people running from police will stay in the public memory long after the streets are cleared.

AI Image Disclaimer: The images accompanying this article are generated by artificial intelligence and are for illustrative purposes only.

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, Le Monde, BBC